iPhone 13 Pro

[NorBro]

On a side note, it's funny how every videographer has shot a wedding at some point in life.

I swear I haven't met a camera operator in 12 years who hasn't. It's like a rite of videographer passage.

And all of them always exhibit the same love-hate energy towards them.

The "I'll do it if you need me but I'd rather do something else" energy if you ask them if they can help out, ha.

Has any DVXuser reading this not filmed a wedding yet?

[Tom Roper]

Now that Apple is officially pushing video quality more than ever before, trust it will become a problem for small freelancers.

"No, we don't need him this time, just use your iPhone, it's fine. I'll import the clips into FCP Mobile and start an AI edit on the drive home. We'll watch it during dinner."

It's happened. You can drive your own bus to shuttle the wedding party between venues, you can design and bake your own cake, do your own catering, DJ your own dance music. You can do your own makeup, do your own auto repair and perform elective surgery on yourself. At some point, hopefully realized before you self medicate, you realize there is something to having a professional do these things for you that you could do yourself, on the day of your wedding. That's the opportunity and I don't worry about it going away. Why worry? Everything ends. Get the dinner rolls while they are still warm in the basket.

Even somebody using the iPhone, importing to FCP Mobile and AI edit, gets a faster edit, gets a faster share, for a video that likely never leaves the mobile phone network, doesn't have the same opportunity for quality shooting from his place in the audience, doesn't have audio feeds, doesn't hold the camera throughout the dinner blessing, the toasts, dances, doesn't know what or who he missed, and it's the bride's call in the vast majority cases who's used. There is nothing to worry about for the pro videographer from these people. Eventually if they stay with it, they become pros themselves, or they disappear into the morass of people who will claim they did wedding videos before giving it up to become millionaires in their other fields of expertise, engineering, architecture, health care, finance and investment banking. Everybody is an expert at everything, so you just go with it and get your share.

[NorBro]

Definitely true, but "Hollywood In Your Pocket" just started yesterday.

Let's bookmark this thread and revisit in 5 years if we have the privilege to do so and see how the thinking has or hasn't changed.

Now that Apple is officially pushing video quality more than ever before, trust it will become a problem for small freelancers.

"No, we don't need him this time, just use your iPhone, it's fine. I'll import the clips into FCP Mobile and start an AI edit on the drive home. We'll watch it during dinner."

[Tom Roper]

Wedding cameras can be replaced by iPhones but for as long as there is value for long form documentary and highlights, wedding videographers are as safe or as at risk as they ever were. Having tons of iPhones at events now is already very common, and has not changed the dynamic of the pro videographer.

Kind of similar but funny, the popularity of photo booths has never been greater at wedding receptions, easily all those pics could be replaced by the iPhone, yet people line up to touch the screen to begin laughing their asses off. It's more than the camera, it's the experience. One last stupid anecdote, I had a friend in the '90's who had a patent on table game for bars played with a 1 inch steel ball and leather paddles. You had 3 open goals to defend and only two paddles. He once told me if you hung a box on the wall with a $0.25 slot, that people would put quarters in it just to see what it did.

[NorBro]

ha, fair enough, straight to the point, I like it.

I'm glad because I was dreading to hear more whining about new technology taking over.

[ahalpert]

I would never wish this for you, but IMO you're in a very dangerous place to be replaced as phones continue to get better.

I honestly do not see the purpose for wedding videographers if more and more people continue to use their phones and locations have high-resolution cameras installed and offer it as a feature to pull frames from your big day.

It will never be the same thing as an experienced, passionate, talented man/woman on their own 2 feet, but it could be good enough (along with other footage from phones).

I don't give a hoot and a holler about your opinion about the future of the wedding videography business because you don't know the business and you don't understand the customer. Anyway, weddings are only 1/3 of my business by revenue. If they become less than that, so be it. Just keep moving

But I got a chuckle thinking about people relying on installed venue cameras for their shots... do you know how much shooting takes place in fields, by waterfalls, train tracks, etc? All the good stuff ("couples portraits"). And talk about labor - weddings are some of my hardest shoot days. Because I'm running around so much. Amateurs won't be putting themselves out like that even if they had a clue where to place the camera

[ahalpert]

I finally watched "Whodunnit". Pretty cool but I was surprised by how bad it looked, just in terms of focus breathing, compressed gradients, color, distortion, etc. But awesome...for a phone...

[NorBro]

We are a few generations behind cinematic mode becoming a normal feature across most iPhone users and right now it is limited to HD which feels like taking a huge step backwards.

P.S. Totally agree with that. I always said the phones aren't there just yet...and I still think that.

So much closer though after yesterday.

Their roadmap probably has 8K ProRes and better sensor technology in the 15 or 16.

These incremental improvements and patience are a part of why they are worth a couple trillions. But they reward us with things like the iPhone and M1 so let them be whatever comes after trillions.

[NorBro]

I don't think a ton of people are going to rush out to buy a second iPhone just to use it for video.

You sure you know who Apple is? It's already sold out. lol

[NorBro]

Ok but now you're talking specifically about microtargeting of advertisements, presumably with different visuals constructed from CGI.

I buy that...

BUT - there's still some number crunching human in a board room deciding on the big picture campaign they want to launch. The broad strokes.

AND - I'm not sure how much of my work specifically gets dislodged by that tech. I'm sure that some will, just not along the lines you're describing because web ads are not currently a big part of my business.

What's more likely to displace me specifically is camera robots and editing software that is easy enough for a producer to command

I would never wish this for you, but IMO you're in a very dangerous place to be replaced as phones continue to get better.

I honestly do not see the purpose for wedding videographers if more and more people continue to use their phones and locations have high-resolution cameras installed and offer it as a feature to pull frames from your big day.

It will never be the same thing as an experienced, passionate, talented man/woman on their own 2 feet, but it could be good enough (along with other footage from phones).

[Thomas Smet]

It's a fingernail sensor size so even if you had full control across the light field it wouldn't matter much besides in the most separated situations.

It's just exciting they are doing this because it will once again force others to be better.

When people are complacent the result is having 8-bit 4K/30p cameras for 8 years.

___

Apple doing this pushes Google and Microsoft to be better.

Apple, Google and Microsoft pushes RED to be better.

RED pushes Blackmagic to be better.

The Japanese sit back and watch.

I don't have a problem with them doing it and I welcome it. I am a iPhone user and I love how each new model becomes less useless.

I'm only stating I don't plan on selling off my Canon R6 just yet and I'm not sure I ever will. Portrait mode has been on the iPhone for a long time now and I just don't see photographers shooting professional work on a phone. Almost every person I know that started off with a phone eventually got a real camera. Maybe that will change in the future and I will cross that bridge when I get there.

I hate to say it but the behind the scenes video of the film maker using the iPhone 13 for some very nice shoots looked ridiculously comical to me. I mean its amazing what can be done but if I had to choose I still would not choose shooting a production like that with a phone over the many other affordable options we have. Just too much that could go wrong and I don't want my personal communications device being tied up all day on a shoot. I don't think a ton of people are going to rush out to buy a second iPhone just to use it for video. Plus I recently bought a iPhone 11 Pro Max and it works great. Not about to rush out and replace it for this. We are a few generations behind cinematic mode becoming a normal feature across most iPhone users and right now it is limited to HD which feels like taking a huge step backwards.

[ahalpert]

.

AI could be tapped into a universal network of information and would consistently be pumping out these visual products and many, many variations of them. It would know how many people clicked on a YouTube ad or other ad and create more ads like that in seconds.

It would try these ads in other markets and see how potential accounts respond there. Never-ending I/O of data.

The purpose of machines would be to communicate, share, analyze and create data 24/7 for companies to make more money than the world has ever seen before.

If an ad on YouTube is resulting in zero activity, it immediately gets pulled and replaced instead of having to wait for a human to edit something else and replace it manually.

Ok but now you're talking specifically about microtargeting of advertisements, presumably with different visuals constructed from CGI.

I buy that...

BUT - there's still some number crunching human in a board room deciding on the big picture campaign they want to launch. The broad strokes.

AND - I'm not sure how much of my work specifically gets dislodged by that tech. I'm sure that some will, just not along the lines you're describing because web ads are not currently a big part of my business.

What's more likely to displace me specifically is camera robots and editing software that is easy enough for a producer to command

[Tom Roper]

https://youtu.be/ARJ8cAGm6JE

[NorBro]

It's a fingernail sensor size so even if you had full control across the light field it wouldn't matter much besides in the most separated situations.

It's just exciting they are doing this because it will once again force others to be better.

When people are complacent the result is having 8-bit 4K/30p cameras for 8 years.

___

Apple doing this pushes Google and Microsoft to be better.

Apple, Google and Microsoft pushes RED to be better.

RED pushes Blackmagic to be better.

The Japanese sit back and watch.

[Thomas Smet]

This is not a replacement for AF. You cannot fix focus in post. The image is made from the wide and ultra wide cameras. The two together create a depth map and in post you can blur which part should be out of focus. It doesn't magically bring something already out of focus into focus. This mainly works because the iPhone cameras have very shallow DOF to begin with. Both cameras will be in focus and then you can you the slider in post to determine where the blur should happen.

"Users can also change focus to any portion of the scene (that was acceptably in focus to begin with when shot), or create focus racks after-the-fact."

You can still get shots out of focus using this method which will never be fixed. Just like I can get out of focus portrait mode stills.